5 Gallon
PET Bottle Project

The 5-gallon (18.9L) water bottle is
already common all across the USA in offices and factories. It is
becoming increasingly common in Europe, and in areas such as Latin
America, where tap water is undrinkable or non-existent, the 5-gallon
bottle has found a market in domestic use. The potential for a
3-gallon domestic cooler is now being seriously examined, with the
major water companies delivering direct to homes, bypassing
supermarket distribution. The market is only waiting for one of the
major domestic electrical equipment suppliers to take the first step.

The
material used today for the 5-gallon bottle is overwhelmingly
polycarbonate (PC). The material is, however, costly - much more so
than PET, and hence only refillable bottles are produced. This also
applies to PET bottles, which are currently produced principally on
single stage machines outputting typically 100 bottles per hour. For
the market to evolve at the desired rate for PET higher outputs will
certainly be required.